Australian Education Union annual conference

Let me begin by acknowledging the Traditional Owners of the land on which we are meeting and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.

There is really only one job in politics I have ever wanted. And this is it. 

There is one reason more than anything else I wanted to do it. 

To do what we are doing right now.

Fixing the funding of our public schools and what it will do.

I don’t think there’s anything more important than what we do in education. 

It doesn’t just change lives. 

Its impact ricochets through generations. If you finish school, your kids are more likely to finish school.

It changes communities too and it changes countries. It’s changed ours. 

And public education does most of that heavy lifting. 

It’s where you’ll find the most disadvantaged children in this country. The children who need our help the most. 

And these are the schools that are most underfunded. 

Where the challenges are the greatest. Where the need is the greatest. 

This is what we’ve got to fix. We have got a long way to go, but a lot has happened in the last 12 months.  

This time last year I talked about the agreement I had just signed with Western Australia. 

That extra funding is now in WA schools. 

Last year I also reached agreements Tasmania, the ACT and the Northern Territory. 

And that funding is also now rolling out. 

There’s no public school in the country, apart from the ACT, where funding is at the Gonski level yet.

And there’s no public school in the country where the disadvantage is as bad or the funding is as low as the Northern Territory. 

Until this agreement. 

It was sitting at less than 80 per cent of the SRS. 

In other words, one in five children in the Northern Territory were effectively not being funded at all. 

This agreement fixes that. 

It doubles the amount of money that the Australian Government puts into public schools in the Northern Territory.

It means instead of reaching full funding in the second half of this century. 

They will reach it in the next few years.   

It means that some of the most disadvantaged public schools in this country will now be some of the best funded.

That’s the sort of thing that will change lives. 

It is the sort of thing that only Labor Governments do.

And since I last spoke at this conference, something else just as important has happened. 

We’ve doubled what we’re offering the states. 

We will fund the full 5 per cent. What you’ve always asked for. 

In return, we want the states to get rid of the 4 per cent that is spent on things like capital depreciation - what you have also been calling for. 

That’s a big shift. 

And South Australia has signed up to that, Victoria has signed up to that too and so has Western Australia. 

And I want to do the same across the country. 

This is a big change, that you have made happen. 

It still involves the Australian Government and state governments both chipping in. 

And it still means tying that funding to the sort of things that we know will help children who need extra help and support.

The sort of things that you’ve been calling for and asking for. 

Things like extra funding for catch-up tutoring and mental health support.

And it means being able to see where that money is going. Making sure it goes where it’s needed. The sort of transparency that you’ve been asking for. 

That’s where we stand today. 

I can promise you as long as I am in this job, I will not stop fighting for this.

What I can’t promise you is that this will survive if Peter Dutton becomes Prime Minister. 

That’s not a threat, it’s just the truth. 

You just have to look at what they did last time.

They ripped the guts out of funding for public schools.

The legislation we have put in place last year will make it hard for him, but not impossible.

The fact is if he wins he could still reverse that and rip this funding out.

That’s the truth. 

There is a lot more to do, I know that, but there is also a lot to fight to keep. 

I don’t think it is over the top to say that the future of public education is at stake. 

If this funding gets ripped out again, inevitably it means more kids will leave the public education system. More teachers will leave too, and more kids won’t finish high school. 

Our schools will become even more segregated than they are today. 

I know you know this, that’s why you’ve been fighting for this when others haven’t. 

Fighting for this for more than a decade. Keeping the cause alive. 

This wouldn’t be happening without you, that’s the truth. But the fight isn’t over yet. 

Something else I want to talk about today. Something worth celebrating. 

That’s the pay rises in the last 12 months in NSW, South Australia, Western Australia and the NT and the impact they are having. 

And the agreements you’ve struck that make a dent in things like workload. Things like more school development days, extra admin support and things like the right to disconnect.

I remember a primary school teacher telling me once that he carried 30 parents around in his pocket.  

And that high school teachers carry more than 100. 

They send him messages often late at night. Not thinking they are bothering him, but that’s just when they’ve got a spare minute when the kids are asleep, but still his phone would ping. 

That’s what the right to disconnect is all about. That’s why the agreements like the one struck in NSW are so important. 

There was some good news on Monday that shows the number of teachers last year jumped by about 8,000. That’s good. 

It doesn’t mean we don’t still have serious teacher shortages, of course we do, but what it shows, I think, is if you pay people more and respect the work they do, more people want to do the job and more people are likely to stay. 

You can also see the signs of this in the number of people enrolling in teaching courses this year – up 14 per cent. 

I’ve got to think that’s helped by pay increases, the agreements, but also things like the new Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships – worth about 40 grand or twice the cost of a teaching degree.

It’s an old school idea that we’ve brought back – we help you cut the costs while you are at uni and you pay it back by working in the public school system when you graduate. 

And from 1 July this year, for the first time ever, we’ll start providing financial support for teaching students while they do their prac.

It all helps. It’s all important. 

I’m not saying all the problems, all the challenges, all the shortages are fixed – they’re not, of course they’re not, but finally, for the first time in a long time things are starting to head in the right direction. 

Something else I want to mention today and that’s what we are doing before kids ever start kindy or prep, before they step into your classrooms. 

I think you know what I am about to say, education doesn’t start at 5 and what we do here, in those first five years, has a big impact on the sort of challenges school teachers face. 

And just like there’s a shortage of teachers in our schools, there’s a real shortage of early educators. 

A big part of that is just people leaving. 

When we won the election two and half years ago, they were leaving in droves.

Many just because they couldn’t afford to keep doing it. They could earn more at Coles or Woolies or Bunnings. 

That’s now changing. 

And that’s because of the 15 per cent pay rise that we're now rolling out. 

The best example of that is what's happening at Goodstart, the biggest childcare operator in the country.

At their centres job applications have now jumped by 35 per cent in the last few months. 

Expressions of interest have jumped by 50 per cent, and vacancy rates are down by a massive 28 per cent. 

We're seeing that sort of thing right across the country.

Again, it turns out that, if you pay people more, more want to do the job.

And last week we did something else. We passed laws that will change the lives of some of the most disadvantaged children in Australia. 

You know these kids. The first time they step into a classroom environment is when they get to school. 

They never experience early education or don’t get enough of it. 

One of the reasons for that is a thing called the Activity Test. Something put in place by the Liberal Party that meant parents couldn’t get the Child Care Subsidy. 

And it meant that their kids start school behind. 

The legislation we passed through Parliament last week gets rid of that test and replaces it with a three day guarantee. 

A guarantee of three days a week of government supported early education and care for every child who needs it. 

No one blinks when you say every child has a right to go to school and government has a responsibility to help fund it. 

The same has got to be true for early education. That doesn’t mean it should be compulsory. But it should be there for every parent who wants it and every child who needs it. 

To help make sure they start school ready to go. 

And that’s what happened last week.

Again, that’s the sort of reform that only Labor Governments do. And that our country needs. 

I know there is more to do. 

I don’t have to convince you of that. 

And I don’t expect you to stop fighting for it. 

I hope you don’t.  I know you won’t. 

So let me end by just saying thank you. 

Thank you for everything you do. 

Thank you for working with me over the last two and half years. 

And thank you for what you are about to do. 

To help make sure that Peter Dutton doesn’t get the chance to do a Tony Abbott 2.0 and rip everything we have done away.